Stone Butterfly

Stone Butterfly by Cristina Ferraiuolo. First edition (2018). First impression hardback in new condition. No markings. This is a new book. Please see pictures. PayPal accepted, any questions please get in touch.

About Stone Butterfly

Set against the background of Cristina Ferraiuolo’s home town, Naples, and shot over the course of many years, this black and white project presents street photography at its best. STONE BUTTERFLY shows teenage girls – both strong and tender – speeding on their scooters through the streets of the old city of stone with its decadent beauty, almost like daughters of the final scene in Fellini’s Roma. “Many years ago, when I began to photograph in the streets of my home town, I used to spend long hours vagabonding around neighbourhoods with my Vespa, ready to be surprised. It was the moment that I really saw them for the first time, as they resurfaced from my imagination and my teenage memories, leaving me totally seduced. They look like warriors, fiercely straddling their scooters, engaged in a tremendous race to conquer just a few metres of territory and ready to rock the world, in that very brief moment of their life when everything seems possible. Their beauty lies in their vital energy, a generating force that is as quickly consumed as the life of butterflies. I have been following their trajectories, retracing the ritual of their movements. Later on, from the street I gradually entered their homes, their lives. In there movement and speed surrender to a motionless time, in which a destiny already written is handed down, unchanged, from mother to daughter, without a second thought. And I found that in this determination lies their strength. Stone butterfly was a long sentimental journey to the roots of my identity, in that feminine universe in which I have learned to recognize myself and which is a whole with the city itself”. /Cristina Ferraiuolo